Community Spirit

(WXIA) -- Tuesday is National Pancake Day, and all Atlanta-area IHOP locations are celebrating by offering free short stacks to customers who support Children's Miracle Network.

Every year, IHOP restaurants raise money for children's hospitals nationwide, including Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, on National Pancake Day. Diners have the option of making a donation in exchange for free buttermilk pancakes.

Reigning Miss Georgia Maggie Bridges stopped by the IHOP in Chamblee Tuesday morning, where she served breakfast and spoke with Children's Miracle Network Champion Sutton Burnett. Other local Miracle Children visited the IHOP restaurants in Peachtree City, Smyrna and Woodstock.

Cartersville's historic district stretches roughly to Church Street to the north, Gilmer Street to the east, Leake Street to the south and Bartow Street to the west. It includes a commercial and government center that functioned from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries.

Landmarks include an 1854 train depot, two historic courthouses, a former post office (1914), the former city hall (1916-17) and the Grand Theater (1924).

CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- The Cartersville Police Department will serve as a collection point for donations to Bartow County's Flowering Branch Children's Shelter.

"The Flowering Branch Children's Shelter provides a much-needed service in the community. I hope everyone will open their hearts to the needs of the shelter," Cartersville Police Chief Thomas Culpepper said in a release.

School supplies and non-perishable food items can be dropped off 24 hours a day in the front lobby of police headquarters.

The shelter has the greatest need for kid-friendly food items, such as:

The food made its way to children through MUST Ministries, whose summer lunch program has been around for 19 years. Program volunteers meet at churches in Bartow, Cherokee, Cobb, Forsyth, Gwinnett, north Fulton, Paulding and Pickens counties five days a week to make, pack and deliver lunches to nearly 6,000 children across eight counties for 10 weeks during the summer.

(WXIA) -- Kroger customers in metro Atlanta recently showed that they are a charitable bunch.

During the final two weeks in May, shoppers raised $232,000 for the Children's Miracle Network through the Miracle Balloons promotion.

For only $1, a customer could purchase a paper balloon to hang in a local Kroger. All proceeds from the fundraiser went directly to Children's Miracle Network hospitals and health networks, such as Children's Hospital of Georgia in Augusta and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

"Kroger customers consistently show their care for our communities by constantly going above and beyond with their charitable donations," Glynn Jenkins, spokesperson for Kroger's Atlanta division, said in a release. "Through their support of the Miracle Balloons program, we can continue to make a difference in the lives of children."